And, I have to back up Don Orsillo here, who was the play-by-play guy. He's more dynamic usually, but whoever the hell they had with him tonight was just painful. So boring. Orsillo couldn't get any real responses out of him for much of anything. And then the guy pissed me off by refusing to admit that the Atkins' home run actually cleared the yellow line in left field.

Hoffman just keeps imploding in big games, what's with that. I guess he's no Mo.

Erin, at least the Sox games are in prime-time, after 5 here, would be doable. But for me, I'll have to listen to a few innings and then skip work early, no way around it. A slingbox would come in handy just about now.

I'm in the middle of my prep work. I should have a few treats for you guys, along with a new format for the live blogs (if my boss, the best boss in the world, I might add, lets me off in time to get home for the games).

First Sox game is at 3 pm on Wednesday. It's the only one I would get to watch with my girlfriend before I leave town for a week, but there's no way she can leave work early enough to watch even part of it. But, whatever. She'll be at Sunday's game, so it's hard to complain too much.

Tony Gwynn, Chip Carey and Bob Brenly. I've heard Gwynn do a couple games this year, he's OK. Brenly and Carey are nothing special, at least they won't make me want to strangle someone like McCarver and Buck.

I've heard Gwynn and he's OK. I've never heard Cal Ripken announce a game. I'm not fond of Joe Morgan or Tim McCarver as announcers, and Joe Buck in football or baseball is just plain annoying, no matter who they pair him up with.

Come to think of it, there aren't many good announcers out there, are there? Brian, you might be missing your calling.

It'll be Beckett, Matsuzaka and Schilling, in that order. They figured Schilling would do better with the extra rest, and wanted Dice-K to at least somewhat keep his momentum from the last few starts, while also getting six days rest. Also, Dice-K has never faced the Angels, so I guess there's a "fear of the unknown" factor they're hoping for. We'll see how that works out.

I think both ALDS series will be tough. Those are 4 high-quality teams. I think Yankees split in Cleveland then beat Byrd and Westbrook in the Bronx. I think Boston holds on to beat the Angels in a tough 5-game series.

Cubs over D'Backs in the NL in what I think will be a pretty easy series. I think Webb takes Game 1 then the Cubs win 3 in a row, and I'm really not sure about Phils/Rockies...I might go with the Phillies, for two main reasons: 1. The Phillies have fan and away the best pitcher in the series (Hamels) and Holliday's home/road splits are much more drastic than I expected. Phils in 5, with Hamels winning games 1 and 5 at CBP.

Did you guys hear Steve Phillips spitting more of his anti-NY biased rhetoric this morning? He was on Mike and Mike in the Morning, and they were wrapping up their segment with him, and he interrupts and says "Oh, one more thing, I just wanted to point out that I think the Indians will beat the Yankees." And then he stammered on a bit and repeated the "Cleveland will win" stuff a few more times. He spent months using flawed logic to explain why the Mariners would beat out the Yankees for the Wild Card, and now he can't leave it alone. He hates NY because he sucked as the Mets GM, and he cant make objective opinions about the Mets or the Yankees...

Phillips is such a moron. He said basically the same thing in a chat session yesterday on ESPN.com. I have to turn off baseball tonight when he's on, he can't go two seconds without saying the Yanks are going to lose.

I doubt it. Come on, you know Torre all too well. But, if Moose gets into trouble, I'm sure Phil will come in. I wonder how Phil would handle the pressure. Guess it'll depend whether we're up 1 game or down 1.

I was talking to Mike from Green Pinstripes and he brought up the "Well, if Moose gets in trouble, we always have Hughes" logic as well. Doesn't it worry you that it might be too late by that point?

Moose had success in previous post seasons, but he was a different pitcher then. Hughes is by far the better pitcher at this point, and he gives the Yankees a much better chance at winning the game. I also don't like the logic that it depends on if we're up a game or down a game. You can't throw away games in the playoffs. If we're up 2-1, then putting them away in the fourth game is crucial. You don't have to travel back to Cleveland, and you don't have to face Sabathia in game 5.

That being said, I'm about 90% sure Moose gets the start. As JJ said, Joe's loyal to his vets, to a fault.

Nah, you aren't a moron Mike, you're just a Piazza-loving Met fan in disguise :)

I get the logic, Mussina is more of a known quantity, sort of. Torre trusts the guys that have done it before. The thing is, it isn't really the guys that have done it before that got us here. It's the young guys. They've energized everyone. I think starting Hughes would give the entire team a lift. If you polled the team, I bet they'd say they want Hughes on the hill. How many times did they have to overcome huge early deficits this year because Mussina didn't have it? They'd rather have the kid out there, because when he's on, he's dominant.

About "being up or down 1" logic, I didn't mean it as far as who should start Game 4, I meant about the pressure Phil will be under if he has to come in to relieve Moose. If we're up 1, Phil may be more relaxed and not try to over-do it. If we're down, the pressure might get to his young self. Or maybe not.

Personally, I'd have Phil start the game with a short leash and have Moose come in if things get crazy (a-la Game 7 '03). But it won't happen, of course. And, yeah, add me to the camp worried about the Rocket start.

Left coast Mike: The difference in pressure between up and down a game is a good point. I don't know though, it's a tough call. I'm afraid that if you put Moose in that type of situation, at this point of his career, we're more likely to get a David Wells in the 2003 W.S. start than a David Cone or El Duque-type start out of him.

If Rocket can't go for game 3, we're pretty much screwed. By screwed, I mean games 3 will probably be an 11-10 final with both bullpens going 5+ innings. I'm not too worried about him at this point. He's got magic drugs that are good enough to get him through 1 start. He should have a week or more of rest between starts once he gets through that one. That's plenty of time to fly back to Houston to "refuel."